UK LABOUR leader Ed Miliband yesterday sought to draw a line under the Blair and Brown years and win back the trust of the British public on the economy.

He used his flagship conference speech in Liverpool to pledge that a future Labour Government would live within its means and “spend what it can afford”.

Mr Miliband stated it would not be possible to reverse many of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government’s cuts and promised his administration would “set new fiscal roles to bind government to a disciplined approach”.

He described former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as “great men” but pledged to forge his own path and said New Labour failed to fully reform the economy.

The former climate change secretary said: “We changed the fabric of our country but we did not do enough to change the values of our economy.”

He said it was wrong that former RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin was given a knighthood in 2004, and promised a Labour Government would use “every penny” from the sale of shares in bailed-out banks to pay down the country’s debt.

Mr Miliband said: “We need a new era of wealth creation in this country but it will not happen with the old set of rules.”

Insisting Labour was pro-business, he contrasted “producers” who train, invest, invent and sell with “predators” who are “just interested in the fast buck.”

Warning future growth would be “built on sand” if it came from predators, he vowed that as Prime Minister these companies would not be taxed or regulated in the same way as producers.

To applause, he accused the private equity firm that took over the troubled Southern Cross care home network of treating elderly people like commodities.

He also attacked the present Government for not doing more to champion companies such as Bombardier and BAE Systems, which yesterday confirmed nearly 3,000 job losses.

Under a Labour Government, he said, no major government contract would go to a company which did not commit to providing apprenticeships.

He also challenged Britain’s top universities to ensure that the brightest children from all backgrounds won places, saying: “Do you know, in any one year more than a quarter of our schools don’t even send five kids to the 30 most competitive universities.”

As well as attacking irresponsible businesses, he turned his guns on benefits cheats and the “something for nothing” of celebrity culture.

But the loudest applause of the speech came when he told the conference that the Conservatives could not be trusted with the NHS. He said this was the “oldest truth in politics”.

The Labour leader warned that the “old values” that had failed the economy were being brought into the NHS.

Describing his own NHS experiences, he said: “I saw it this year with the birth of our own son, Sam. Like millions of other families, mine had the best of care from doctors and nurses.

“And nobody asked for my credit card at the door.”

Mr Miliband said Prime Minister David Cameron offered “the wrong values for our country and the wrong values for our time”.

Caerphilly Labour MP Wayne David was delighted by Mr Miliband’s performance, saying: “I thought it was a wonderful, inspiring speech. I thought it was a speech which was addressed to the nation as well as the conference hall.

“It was delivered with confidence, touches of humour but also with a sense of vision and purpose. He made it pretty clear that the Labour party was once again establishing itself as a party of ordinary people against vested interests.

“On that basis I thought it was extremely successful.”

Mr Miliband was greeted yesterday by a Comres poll which found 57% of respondents did not think he was a “credible Prime Minister-in-waiting” and put the Conservatives at 37%, one percentage point ahead of Labour.

Nia Griffith, Labour MP for Llanelli, said he had performed well in response to the phone-hacking scandal and riots but international events such as the revolutions in Arab countries had taken attention away from domestic policy.

She said: “I think one of the main difficulties for a party in opposition is getting any exposure at all. Whether it’s positive or negative, the focus is always on the party in government.”

However, she said Mr Miliband had used his speech to introduce himself as an individual and his core principles and provided a clear contrast with the Tories.

Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors, was alarmed by Mr Miliband’s pledge to distinguish between “producers” and “predators”.

He said: “We would like to know how Ed Miliband plans to identify and reward ‘good’ companies over ‘bad’ ones. In practice, we think he would find this neither straightforward nor desirable.”

“He should have more faith in customers and investors to decide... Consumers and investors are better equipped and better informed than ever to impose discipline on firms than any government.”